Talk:Oakland Unified School District

Untitled

I am deleting a lot of the negative language in the article. It seems to be one person's perspective without citations and there is no real effort to tell the history of the school district. Michaeljwsiegel 20:44, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

This appears to have been written by a relative of an Oakland School Board member, Dan Siegel. The edit that followed this whitewashed some bad district history and test scores[1]. WP:COI applies. I am going to do a little re-work on this. Richmondian (talk) 18:17, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

videojournalist section

this seems to have undue weight, i'm removing it. the content is ok but the article is so short and i don't remember this arrest being a major event. Richmondian (talk) 15:58, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

here's what was there

On October 31, 2008, Art Michel, Police Chief of the Oakland School District's Police Department, arrested an Oakland Tribune videojournalist who carried an official press pass while filming school district students marching in a political protest outside the Fruitvale BART station.

The videographer was arrested and detained, her news videotape of the protest was officially taken from her possession at the scene of the arrest by police, but returned several days later. The videographer turned on her video camera during the heated confrontation that preceded the arrest, in which Michel repeatedly cursed and yelled at her.

After the incident, the school district did not disclose any disciplinary proceedings for Michel. On November 4, 2008, the Alameda County District Attorney's Office announced it would not charge the videographer with Michel's complaints of vandalism, blocking a street and inciting a riot. On January 6, 2009, an OUSD spokesman announced Michel would be resigning from the district.

Michel's resignation came in the wake of questions that recently arose about Michel's employment in light of his retirement status, such as whether he was "double-dipping" by receiving a salary from one public entity and retirement benefits from another. Michel retired from the Oakland Police Department as a sergeant in 2003 after 31 years of service. In 2007, he joined the newly resurrected Oakland school district force.

I've boldly reverted your good faith efforts to improve the article; CHIEF Michel's arrest of the videojournalist was and is both well-sourced and notable and worthy of inclusion in this encyclopedia article. Notwithstanding your sentiments that you "don't remember this arrest being a major event," (I have no idea of your level of news/policy consumption) it was regional news, maybe not on the level of the '89 Loma Prieta earthquake, but a few of the Trib/Merc articles did make it to the number one slot Trib/Merc's "most read" list for a good few weeks last year. Considering the first amendment issues at stake, my own conspiracy theory was that there was a bit of a news blackout on this from media organizations eager to get the "scoop" from Troy Flint on OUSD's anticipated egress from state receivership around the end of '08. But that's total speculation on my part, and "neither here nor there" as they say. Consider also that the sources on this incident comprise about half of the overall sources of the article, and that this article will never evolve past list class if we clearcut its thin battery of citations. You may feel there are issues of "undue weight" here, but at least a summary of the incident should remain, with sources intact, for researchers examining it in the context of OUSD's history. CriticalChris 23:27, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

This may have been a serious event to you but its importance is fairly small the scope of OUSD, this is just one arrest in the long history of the district. The article as is doesn't even cover the huge strikes on the 80's-90's and the financial mismanagement and receivership of the 00's is barely touched on. I'm not going to edit-war with you over it; it looks like we're the only two editors on this page. Richmondian (talk) 23:42, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

You're right on some levels; it doesn't cover the strikes and could benefit from coverage of those incidents. Perhaps you can find the time to add them to this article, and share more of your understanding of the district's history. CriticalChris 23:47, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

Chris, I'm going to re-add the strikes, but we need to work together. It isn't enough to say "if you think the article is unbalanced, go and add some other stuff", if you want your content on here you gotta pitch in. Richmondian (talk) 00:02, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

And if you aren't actually interested in the article other than this videographer attack, I am less likely to believe you really think it belongs here. Seems almost like a way to WP:ATTACK the officer in question. Richmondian (talk) 00:34, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

I am not sure I understand your claims of me making a personal attack against Chief Michel here. Do you somehow believe that a sworn peace officer (let alone a public law enforcement executive or agency chief) who makes such a controversial arrest should not be considered a public figure? Do you object to the framing of the incident on this encyclopedia? the news coverage? the publication of Michel's name? Do you opine that he deserves a stronger expectation of privacy? Can you please elaborate? Maybe we should open an RFQ on this. And what do you mean by "it isn't enough to say..." and "you gotta pitch in?" Is an editor that cruises through here every now and then merely for the purposes of cleaning up some grammar and spelling being remiss in his or her editing responsibilities? Do tell. CriticalChris 22:38, 13 November 2009 (UTC)

sorry chris i misunderstood WP:ATTACK, i thought it just meant a page that spent a lot of time criticizing some individual. i don't think he needs more privacy if it is all cited. the info seems to be cited there but it just seems to be emphasized so much more than the rest of stuff in the school district's history. have you thought of putting it in its own article, with a short section here that links to it?

we could do an RFC if you think it would be a good way to get others opinions, but i am pretty sure others will think it sticks out like a sore thumb too. i'd rather not go there unless you think it'll turn out differently

BTW i don't mean to say whatever happened was a small incident, i'm sure the journalist didn't think so! its just that this district has been around for 100 years or so, it sort of jumped out at me when i read the article.

as far as the "you gotta pitch in", what i mean is, i am not a huge fan of this content, but i won't push to get it out IF you express interest in the article in some other dimension. Richmondian (talk) 22:47, 13 November 2009 (UTC)

THANKS for the cute threat; the aura of coercion makes the collaborative editing process such a joy! Do you strongarm other editors in this way in your clumsy attempts to have them drop what they are doing and get going on other content of which you're a "huge fan?" IF NOT, you'll dismantle half the existing citations and content in a list class article, won't you Richmondian? Also, is --one revert-- considered an "edit war" in your book, as you labeled my edits a few days ago? Seriously, you're really pushing the envelope here, and I would appreciate a bit more WP:civility. CriticalChris 23:27, 13 November 2009 (UTC)

To your other point, why exile the information into a separate article, given the size and growth stage of this article? Now, if, on the other hand, this were the Oakland article, arguably getting too big for its britches at 126kb, you would have a more persuasive position from which to lobby your zeal to excise the videojournalist arrest content from this OUSD article. Also, in your penchant for the use of terms like "sore thumb," one might conclude you have strong sentiments about this section of the article reflecting poorly on the school district itself. If you have any WP:COI to disclose, whether you believe those conflicts to be legitimate or not, now would be a good time to do so. Are you on OUSD's board? Do you work for OUSD or the State authorities? Do you have a vested interest in a competing charter school? Do you volunteer for the district on a PTA basis or have some other personal interest in seeing a better public face for OUSD, regardless of substantive legal and philosophical issues like the school district's police chief arresting journalists in front of students? For the record, I live, vote, and pay taxes in Oakland, which summarizes the extent of any special interest I have with regard to OUSD. CriticalChris 23:27, 13 November 2009 (UTC)

References

Comments from former talk page of Emerson Elementary School (Oakland, California)

Twice now this page has been deleted.

The first time was quite understandable, as there was no attribution, nor were there any links.

There are now both links to the school information, to test scores, to news articles, and to the helping organizations.

The last deletion was based, as far as I can tell, on the premise that the school article is simply not important enough to be included. Many other elementary school articles exist, and are relevant only to their community and to the larger districts. I am unable to understand why those other schools somehow meet the criterion for articles and yet this does not.

Please, please, discuss with me any issues with content before deleting. Any 'bad writing' would be only my fault, but I believe that the content fits all wiki standards.

Some ideas for the article

The article is really great, I would just add that there is a very small list of schools under the school section. An idea would be to expand the list and include some more schools in the district. Also, if there was a section of high schools because there is only elementary and middle schools posted up. S.sherif (talk) 21:50, 13 February 2018 (UTC)

Thanks! Gjulp (talk) 11:46, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

Links broken (Emerson, cont'd)

I noticed that links 2 & 3 give "page not found" errors. Can we get some updated statistics? (Ngandomi (talk) 21:43, 17 November 2010 (UTC))

article is now a redirect, per WP policy on elementary schools. such schools are NOT automatically notable.Mercurywoodrose (talk) 03:10, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

Language names

Vietnamese: Học khu Thống nhất Oakland WhisperToMe (talk) 14:31, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

Boundary maps

http://publicportal.ousd.k12.ca.us/19941094182743913/site/default.asp WhisperToMe (talk) 17:46, 11 September 2011 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Writing 1 TR

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 24 August 2022 and 16 December 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Phernandez510 (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Phernandez510 (talk) 03:40, 10 November 2022 (UTC)